First the easy bit to which I'm 99% sure I know the answer, then the second bit which I need help with....

I sold my house this year, I have already purchased my new house although the actual move won't take place until next year. The easy bit is that I know (99% sure) that I can "roll over" the capital gain on this house sale to the next house purchase and therefore delay paying tax on the gain until I sell the next house. Right so far?

The more difficult bit is that even though I told the notary who sold the house what I was planning to do and he understood and noted it, he has still retained that portion of the deposit to pay the tax, and is currently holding it on account.

Before I shout, do I need to actually do anything in advance with the tax authorities to get their authorisation that this is OK? I assumed that he would submit the forms, and it would show up when I do my 2011 tax declaration at which point I would explain that I wished to defer.

Any expertise?

I thought this was going to be a thread about steamrolling stuff.

We moved from one house to another with a week owning both, which doesn't seem to be what you are doing.

In drawing up the contract of sale the notary inserted a clause that we were responsible the capital gains tax (Grundstuckgeweinsteuer). this is in all contacts of sale, I believe. The notary advised that we should contact our tax office.

So we popped round the corner to the Steueramt who was very helpful and gave us a form to complete. This form shows what you paid and you can deduct cost of sale etc. from the selling price. This form was then returned to the tax office who worked out that we were due to pay about CHF65,000.

This was confirmed to the Notar. But was only due for payment sometime in the future. We then sent a copy of the contract for the new place to the tax office and they confirmed in a letter that, as the new place cost as much or more than the selling price of the old one, tax would only be due if we moved again within 3 years.

In our case the notary took no deposit. But the sale and new purchase was simultaneous, in your case, you'll need that letter from your local tax office for the notary to release the money. At least that's how it worked in canton Zurich...

I think it isn't about the simultaneous purchase, its about saying that the money you make is going to be spent on the new house and not paying any tax on the first sale and all on the second. Apart from the fact that you can invest the money and in theory keep it growing, its nice to be able to keep it yourself.

Its also strange that you need a letter. I don't have a letter from the tax office to my work to tell them its ok to pay me without taxing me